THE Warren is a 1929 Arts and Crafts five-bedroom thatched farmhouse within a plot of approximately 2.24 acres.
Situated on the edge of Streatley, with the historic Ridgeway path on the doorstep, it is secluded yet within a connected community.
The property was once the primary house at Warren Farm, which was home to the Arnopa Trust and later the Kulika Charitable Trust, founded by Patricia Brenninkmeyer of the C&A retail family.
Owners Vanessa, 58, and Chris Shannon, 60, moved there in 2000 with their two children and another on the way. They made significant improvements, adding a fifth bedroom, completely rethatching the roof and building a balcony off the main bedroom.
Vanessa says: “There’s lots of history with it. It used to be where the pre-school was. I think the main thing living here was actually Streatley as much as anything else. We were the first people to move in after the developers and we’ve stayed for 25 years.”
Entrance to the property is via a large solid timber door into a reception hall with wood burner, cloakroom and staircase and access to the three main reception rooms — drawing room, sitting room and on to the study — and the kitchen breakfast room.
Upstairs, three of the five bedrooms have en suites and two share an additional shower room. The principal bedroom has a west-facing balcony with room for seating, overlooking the garden.
The house has original exposed beams, oak panelling and oak latched doors, high ceilings and a blend of open-plan and traditional spaces.
The Ukrainian reed roof was rethatched in 2021 and there are five-metre bifold doors from the kitchen breakfast room to the outdoors.
Outside, there is a private driveway, detached double garage, a studio, a barn to the rear, large garden shed and potting shed.
The gardens wrap around the house and include seating areas, an enclosed entertaining terrace with pizza oven, outdoor kitchen and barbecue.
There is a vegetable and fruit garden with espalier apple trees. The grounds feature planting, trees and shrubs and on the west side of the garden there is a natural swimming pond.
Vanessa adds: “Even though we’re away from the village it’s been a really practical place to live.
“The school bus goes from the end of the lane and the school community was quite tight. So, it was a house that was always full of little kids running around and mums and big summer parties, like five families here in one go and we could easily accommodate them.
“There’s a community which I think is a huge plus for the actual location of the house being part of a redevelopment from a farmyard.
“I didn’t work at the time but Chris was travelling an awful lot and I think for us the special thing about living here was having all this space but also having neighbours.
“So it’s private but with the security of neighbours to fall on if I needed help.
“I think the other massive thing is just being so close to the Ridgeway, we’ve been very much cycling and dog walking from the back door and kids could be ‘Huckleberry Finn’ quite safely. That’s been quite a big part of living here, which is why for us it’s been so special, it’s having the freedom of not having to get in a car to go for massive walks and just to be outdoorsy.”
The couple are downsizing as their children have left home, says Vanessa.
“It’s time for a new chapter in our lives. We’re torn between going to rent in Oxford and getting somewhere smaller in Streatley.
“At Christmas, the kids came home and we all went to the Miller and bumped into the families whom they grew up with. I think we’ll go and enjoy time renting in Oxford unless the perfect house comes up in Streatley, as we’d prefer to wait for the right house.”
The Warren has a guide price of £2,850,000. For more information and to arrange a viewing, call Warmingham and Co on (01491) 874144.
